L'homme traqué

This movie has a plot...unlike many.

It has a reason for the evil corporations to exist and actually BE evil.

It has action, suspense and martial arts...with a touch of mystery and drama.

While the future was made a little bit too futuristic as it is supposed to be 2008 and this review is almost in 2007, it's not impossible to see too far off.

Nice pacing, good casting.

This goes on my watchable list of movies.

If Arnold or Bruce Willis would have headlines, this would have been a blockbuster instead of a straight to video.

I'm glad they didn't headline it, because they would have destroyed the lead character with their presence.

Eric Roberts was cast great as the father.

Cool movie...

It's 2008. Laws have been passed allowing suicide. A corporation named Lifecorps pays people to surrender their bodies to science. Someone goes there, is paid a given big amount of money and time later, he/she will have her body parts and organs delivered to whom may need it.

In that context, James Gabriel is a worker whose son is in serious condition in a hospital. With mounting debts, Gabriel is faced with the painful truth: his son has a supposedly already eradicated virus. The vaccines are too expensive and he has less than a day to get the money for them. Cornered by circumstances, he goes to Lifecorps. He is paid the money he needs and in a year he will be property of the corporation. However, when he returns, his son has already died and his body incinerated to prevent the disease from spreading.

The doctor tells him that the vaccine was refused by the providers... Lifecorps. He returns there to give the money back and is nicely told that the deal remains. He tosses the money around like confetti and walks away, cursing everyone. The head of Lifecorps, considering this an open statement that Gabriel won't fulfill the contract (anticipatory breach of contract, they call it), sends his "seekers", lead by a Mr. Burke after Gabriel. So Gabriel must escape, helped by a bounty hunter who first tries to get him but later helps him.

TV aired this one and I had nothing better to do. The movie has interesting action scenes and does not depict a highly technological future. Being TNT-produced, I'm bound to believe it's a TV release, what goes in favor of this film, and a not-big budget film, which allows to see actors out of the dreadful Hollywood mainstream. Eric Roberts is a good actor and does well, though his time has passed, and all he can apparently do now is appear in videos of Mariah Carey or The Killers. As for Cary Elwes, it's the first time I see him playing a real bad guy, and he has what it takes for that. Sarah Wynter is believable as Alex, the bounty hunter.

It's no masterpiece, but an interesting movie worth watching. 6

This movie has it all... CGI (but it looks "too CGI"), romance, action (NOT exactly Hong Kong-action but...) and sci-fi (well, as sci-fi as you can get with black motorcycle-helmets and laser-gunsights)...

Because I'm "euro-trash", I didn't know who Eric Roberts was, but now I do... I'm starting to understand why he is portrayed like he is in the South Park episode "Cartman's Mom Is Still A Dirty Slut"...

Since I've already bought the movie, I might watch it a couple of times, but on a scale of 1 to 10? 3...

I remember when I went to see Freejack in 1992: I was hungry for some good post-apocalyptic cyberpunk cinema.

The premise that time was the same as now: Protagonist tries to stay alive while penetrating to the heart of enormous, amoral forces that seek to turn him into spare parts. Back in 1992, we got a callow Emilio Esteves -- A world-class race-car driver? C'mon! -- as hero and romantic protagonist hopelessly miscast as a romantic foil to Renee Russo, who gamely did her best. What else? Let's see: Mick Jagger, phoning in his role with little more than a sneer, and Jerry Hall in a cameo doing her best Jerry Hall imitation. Even the normally excellent Anthony Hopkins seemed almost a plastic copy of himself.

Compare with this time around. Same premise, but this time Eric Roberts' character and Sarah Wynter's generate some actual sympathy and chemistry when they're not adding to the body count -- both showing some depth of character and conscience, each in his/her way. Cary Elwes is chillingly effective in his role as a hunter of almost reptilian persistence. Diane Venora turns in a fine supporting performance as an executive apparatchik who discovers the gross misjustice being perpetrated. And the curious flatness and jerkiness of Freejack eight years ago is eclipsed by this much better-paced story.

In the future, US corporations take advantage of permissive suicide and health care laws to harvest human body parts. Those with healthy organs may trade them for a cash sum, upon death. If you plan to die quickly, you will get more money. Our story's hero is lowly high rise construction worker Eric Roberts (as James Gabriel). He is a poor widower, but in excellent health. "I never get sick," states Mr. Roberts. However, Roberts' son Daniel Magder (as Bobby) may not be so lucky. The child has contracted the dreaded "Ralph Virus" once thought to be extinct. It kills furiously fast, but there is a cure...

Alas, the vaccine is prohibitively expensive. With his son literally at death's door, Roberts signs a contract with the wickedly corrupt "Lifecorps" corporation, for $300,000. Roberts must turn over his body for harvesting in exactly one year, but the money will cure Bobby. Of course, things can go wrong...

Roberts is a reliable lead, as usual. He spars well with villainous Cary Elwes (as Burke), who is exceptional as elevator doors close on his face. Athletic blonde Sarah Wynter (as Alex) provides feminine companionship, but corporate officer Diane Venora (as Helen Steele) is the one with the more interesting yen for Roberts. "Lifecorps" sleaze Chris Sarandon (as Anton Stofeles) has little to do; it would have improved the story to have him be in desperate need of a Roberts body part. Robin Wilcock (as Rupert Elliot) is impressive. For a TNT Presents TV Movie, "Race Against Time" delivers the goods.

****** Race Against Time (7/23/00) Geoff Murphy ~ Eric Roberts, Cary Elwes, Sarah Wynter, Diane Venora